A Moment of Brilliance… and a Kiss of Death

“I’m the best…Eva!” Phil Baroni, post-Yuki Kondo knock-out.

Apparently not, Phil. In a grueling five round fight for the vacant Icon 185 lb. championship on the beautiful island of Hawaii, Kala Kolohe Hose defeated Phil Baroni via referee stoppage due to strikes.  The New York Badass looked good early with an opening bell double leg followed by some brutal ground and pound, but gassed at the end of the first and never recovered.  Hose took control in third, and turned the fight one-sided during the fourth and fifth rounds to capture the title.

Hopefully, the gamblers amongst you took my advice and laid some dough on the Hawaiian.  You could buy your mom a new Easter bonnet.

And now for the kiss of death… my man, JZ Calvancante.  Not one, two or three, but four illegal elbows to the back-of-the-neck region of Shinya Aoki?  JZ was dominating the fight before the blows, but the bout was ruled a no-contest (pending an officials review).  This leaves the top two fighters in the Dream Lightweight tournament possibly out of the next round (though, my bet is the powers that be will disqualify JZ and advance the ‘Tobikan Judan’ to the quarter finals). 

In defense to myself and JZ, I think Aoki took the easy way out of fight he was clearly losing (something he has done twice before in his career).

For my next kiss of death (or moment of brilliance), I am predicting the Connecticut Huskies to advance to the Final Four.   Husky dogs barking, baby!

Anderson Silva and Roy Jones Jr.

I remember watching Pride 25- Body Blow back in 20004 and seeing an interview of a young Chute Boxer phenom named Anderson Silva before his fight with ex-UFC welterweight champion Carlos Newton.  Silva mentioned the name Roy Jones Jr. during the interview, comparing their similar styles. 

Fast forward to 2008; Silva has cleared out the UFC middleweight division and is seemingly so bored with his future competition (Jon Fitch, Yushin Okami) that he wants to fight Junior in a boxing match. With respects to Bas Rutten and Melvin Manhoef, I consider Silva the most effective striker in MMA history.  However, I am not sure he could survive a boxing-only match with Roy.

If any boxers out in USFL-land would like to send me an email previewing this possible showdown, I would gladly post it.  One thing I do know, it would be a huge pay per view draw. 

Oh, shockingly enough Silva used his Muay Thai striking to knock Newton out.  I guess not much has changed (note to the UFC; sign Matt Lindland now!)

All Aboard the Joe Lauzon War Wagon

And I’m not just leading the charge because Joe made me a lot of dough (nice rhyming skills) by knocking out Jens Pulver.  And it’s certainly not because anyone who would enter the cage with a nick-name of J-Lau must be gangster extreme.  Winner of five in a row, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter from Massachusetts has found his groove in the cage.  He has finished all of his three UFC fights dynamically (KO, tri-angle choke, rear-naked choke).  Look for him to continue his winning ways against fellow Red Sox fan Kenny Florian on UFC Ultimate Fight Night card April 2nd.

J-Lau versus Ken-flow, you can’t make this up.

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